DATES: MANDATORY MEETING: Wednesday, December 6, 2000 (12:00 - 2:00 pm)
CLASS SESSIONS:
Wednesday, January 3 - Friday, January 12, 2000
Registration for the Program
The Curriculum
Schedule
Registration
Special Charges
and Withdrawal Limitations
Registration:
October 19th & 20th (Registrar's Office,Room 114 Law School)
Payment Arrangements By:
November 10th
The Hofstra Comprehensive Trial Skills Program is an intensive immersion experience. It is an innovative program that, in a single intensive educational experience, provides basic training in all of the fundamental lawyering skills involved in civil and criminal litigation. Students will learn the essential aspects of trial lawyering focusing on OPENING STATEMENTS SUMMATION, DIRECT and CROSS EXAMINATION; DOCUMENTARY and EXP ERT TESTIMONY. The critical skills of SETTLEMENT NEGOTIATION will be introduced as will the essential PRE-TRIAL DISCOVERY technique of the DEPOSITION. Students will conduct both a BENCH TRIAL and a JURY TRIAL. The students' performances will be individually reviewed by experienced attorney/teachers and by professional actors.
The program is based upon the proven intensive methodology initially developed by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) for practicing lawyers. This course is given on ten consecutive days in January. Attendance is required and is taken daily. The program is open to second and third-year students who have completed the basic course in Evidence. Trial Techniques is also available on the same basis to students graduating in January. Interested students should obtain registration and tuition information from the Registrar's Office in early October preceding the January in which they seek to enroll.
The original intensive trial program was developed by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy for the training of practicing lawyers. It has been offered annually at Boulder, Colorado and regionally at Hofstra, North Carolina, Arizona, Northwestern, Oregon and elsewhere. The cost to practicing lawyers is $1950. The cost to you will be $880 for your tuition and books.
We will be using NITA materials, but we have substantially enhanced the scope of skills training beyond those provided in a NITA program. The NITA method of teaching trial techniques consists of intensive instruction in every aspect of trial advocacy.
The trial problems are structured so that students are first exposed to basic problems of identifying and effectively communicating a case theory to a jury. This is accomplished to starting the program with the Opening Statements.
After the Opening statement, the student will be trained in basic Negotiation theory and aided in developing the critical planning skills necessary for conducting successful negotiations. In an innovative addition to the program, students will then practice these skills by negotiating both a simple and a complex case.
The student is then asked to focus on the core skills of trial advocacy -- Witness Examination. Students will conduct direct and cross examinations. From the outset, however, students must develop a theory of the particular examination, decide on an appropriate approach to bring out the facts consistent with the theory, prepare the witness and demonstrate the examination. Students must also anticipate evidentiary objections and defend his or her position when objections are made by others in the class or by the instructor.
From simple direct, cross and redirect, the student must then prepare
and demonstrate problems which require laying a foundation and introduction
into evidence of various types of exhibit material including documents,
photographs, x-rays, maps, charts, reports and physical objects.
Further problems, drawn on the special NITA materials require students
to prepare and conduct Closing Statements.
Once proficiency is established in basic techniques of examination, the problems become quite complex requiring intensive preparation. Substantial questions of evidence are built into each problem to develop the student's proficiency in making and defending against objections.
Another feature of Hofstra's Comprehensive Trial Skills Program is the training in Examinations Before Trial (Depositions). Each student will take a deposition during the course. Students will be carefully trained in the basic skills of deposition preparation and execution. Special Strategy Sessions will be conducted to prepare each side for its deposition. To emphasize the critical role of pre-trial discovery in the litigation process, the deposition will not be a purely academic exercise. After the deposition, that very witness will testify in a bench trial to be conducted by the same students that took the deposition. During the bench trials the cross examining attorney will rely on the information elicited during the deposition. In this simulation of the real world of trial law, "If you don't find out about it pre-trial, you won't know it during the trial."
A typical day begins at 9:00 a.m. with the class divided into four sections. The students will perform the assigned problems and becritiqued by the Teaching Team. This will lead to discussion among the Team members and the class. A coffee break comes at 10:00 a.m. or so. At about 10:30 a.m., the class is divided into small groups of ten students for the purpose of student demonstration and critique of assigned problems by faculty and prominent trial lawyers and judges, the latter volunteering their services. Each student is required to prepare and demonstrate several problems per day. The student faculty ratio is usually 1:5.
Problem demonstration continues until lunchtime. After the lunch hour, the small groups reconvene for more individual demonstration and critique.
At about 5 P.M. the entire class will convene in the Moot Court Room to watch a demonstration of some aspect of the work assigned for the following day. These demonstrations are supplemented by lectures and films.
Each student will be videotaped at least twice during the course of the program. Following a "live" critique, the student will watch his or her performance on a T.V. monitor and be critiqued on a one on one basis.
The first six working days are taken up with problem solving -- a procedure we loosely term the finger exercises. Thereafter, students will try a complete case to a judge sitting without a jury. Following these trials we return for more advanced exercises. When all problems are completed, the students are again divided into teams with two students on each team. Each team is assigned to try a Full Jury Trial presided over by a sitting judge or prominent trial lawyer.
If more students register than can be admitted, a list of students will be posted on the board in the main lobby. Third year law students will be given preference and a waiting list will be created. If an admitted student does not pay, or arrange for payment, by Friday, November 10th, their slot will be given to someone else. Student loans may be arranged with the assistance of Dean Modell, and there is a scholarship in the name of the late Nassau Supreme Court Justice Raymond Wilkes.
SPECIAL CHARGES AND WITHDRAWAL LIMITATIONS
There is a special charge for this program because bringing you the resources that are provided during this program involve significant costs.
WITHDRAWAL: Registrants may withdraw prior to December 1, 2000, without penalty. Those who withdraw after that date, however, will be assessed a $50 dollar penalty. Due to the commitment of funds to hire and transport the trial attorneys who will teach this program, students withdrawing AFTER December 15, 2000 will receive NO refund!!